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Tuesday, January 24, 2012

My Trip to Colorado

I know I went to Colorado almost an entire month ago (I just counted—I returned 23 days ago), but I want to tell you about it now.

*Side note. I just wanted to tell you I am eating Fun Dip as I type. Pretty sure the last time I ate it was when I was 12. It’s good.

This is how it makes me feel.

I can’t believe I just posted that picture for all the internets to see.

End side note.*

I arrived at Denver International Airport around 6:30 on Wednesday, December 28 after a nice nap on the airplane and talking to the nice lady next to me who has a son that lives in Dubuque. Small world. And what is it about airplanes that make me fall asleep? I wasn’t tired beforehand, but once I got on the plane my eyes starting drooping and my head started bobbing.

Danielle was already at the airport waiting for me by the time I made it from my concourse over to baggage claim. I was so excited to see her! We immediately started making the trek towards Westminster to get some food because we were both starving. We figured we would be able to get right in Hacienda but the place was packed and we had about a 30 minute wait. Of course, we moseyed on up the bar and ordered ourselves 2 margaritas. Both were delicious! As we were sipping our way through our frozen cocktails, our table opened up and we started off with some chips, salsa, and guacamole. The food was delicious but the conversation was even better. Danielle and I caught up each other on the happenings in our lives.

We finished the night with watching Stick It which is one of our favorite friend movies that we always watch when we are together. Favorite line: “And GED? What does drunk driving have to do with school?” Ah so funny.

On Thursday I woke up to Danielle cooking me a killer breakfast. Potatoes, scrambled eggs, pancakes, and faux breakfast sausage. Paired with some delicious tea. Our plan that day was take the factory tour at Celestial Seasonings. First we took a detour to Danielle’s parent’s house were we consumed chips and salsa and taquitos. So delicious and yet I’m sure so fully loaded with sodium. Oh well it was vacation. On to Celestial Seasonings for tea touring, were we debated the correct pronunciation of the word “tour” with Danielle’s friend Kelly. She pronounces it “tore” while Danielle and I both pronounce it “to-ore” with 2 syllables. We won because it was 2 vs. 1. Sadly no pictures are allowed in the tour, but copious amounts of tea samples were consumed. If you are even in Boulder, you need to visit the tea factory. Make sure you stand in the mint room because it clears those sinuses right up. It is also possible that I got slightly carried away in the gift shoppe and purchased four boxes of tea. Totally worth it though because it is cheaper on sight and they have almost every kind of tea they make. The supply at my local grocery store is very very limited. I even bought some new-to-me kinds including a red rooibos tea.

The afternoon wrapped up with a short trip to Barnes & Noble. Where a rogue cart almost ran in Danielle’s car. The moment was a priceless one. Danielle was navigating her way through a packed parking lot when a cart rolled out from a cart corral and was picking up speed towards the car. Danielle yelled, “Ah runaway cart!!” and gunned it forward in the parking lot. The moment was so priceless and in one of my finest moments I laughed so hard I snorted. Repeatedly. I couldn’t stop. For the reminder of the trip whenever it was getting too quiet I would just well “Ahhh! Runaway cart!” But I could never get through the whole statement without cracking up.

The night was wrapped up by a quick trip to Chipotle for a quick dinner and some country line dancing. It came as a complete surprise to me that Denver, CO has such a large community of country music lovin’, cowboy hat wearing, line dancin’ hicks. It was ladies night at the Grizzly Rose and so we enjoyed a few drinks and I learned several new line dances. None of which I remember now. Danielle and I even witnessed the demise of some underage girls. Apparently it is a really bad idea to drink when you are underage there. Who knew? The employees were like hawks and had eyes on the back of their heads. It was a pretty entertaining scene. The girls, of course, were wearing tank tops and had to stand outside in the cold against the wall. It appeared that the employee was interrogating them. Later as we were driving away, we saw them talking to a policeman. Busted, my friends.

More on my last two days of the trip tomorrow!

p.s. My tongue hurts from eating too much Fun Dip. Not so much fun now.